This year has been rather a mixed bag really, and the most unusual of all.  It's been filled with fun, laughter, travel, anxiety, stress and 3 lockdowns!

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WE launched our new season on 4th January with the Van meeting, with lots of excellently painted vans, and everyone eager to get back to racing after the Christmas and New Year break. 

 

On 26th January we launched the Junior Series, having been very successful in 2019 with the age group splits, giving our Primary school agers a greater chance at glory!  103 Luke Poole got off to a great start with 3 heat wins and taking the final too, placing him firmly in the lead of the younger section.  In the Secondary school agers, 32 Charlie Ruskin took the first heat win, with 203 Jack Booker crossing the line in 1st place for the following two heats.  Jack then went on to take the chequered flag for the Final, and secured his lead in the older section! 

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The following weekend, we headed of to MWA at Peterborough, and had another great weekend of racing and promoting of our beloved sport!

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Then on 22nd February we held the first round of this years Team Championship.  Lots of great team racing, loads of crashing and plenty of carnage!  After four rounds of gruelling heats, the Anarchists A take the early lead in the Championship, with the Midnight Runners in 2nd place and in 3rd were the Dirty Half Dozen.  A great start!

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Sadly these were to be the only rounds held this year for these Championships.

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8th March saw a great Sunday spent at the Cow Shed for the Dutch Open, sponsored by Rob "Norbs" Gymer.  Again, plenty of great racing and plenty of carnage, with 32 Charlie Ruskin taking the Junior title and 203 Jack Booker raising the cup as Dutch Open Champion for 2020.  Congratulations guys, a rare sight of 2020, crowning Champions!

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It was then pulling out all the stops to get the Autism Awareness meeting organised for 29th March.  Sam, Midge and most of the Brentwood Crew worked relentlessly to gather raffle prizes, sell raffle tickets etc. in preparation for the biggest meeting of the year.  Then our world came to a crashing halt as COVID-19 spread rapidly worldwide, and on 23rd March we were placed in a National Lockdown!  Autism Awareness sadly had to be postponed.  Heart-breaking!  All that hard work came to a stop.  But this is Brentwood RC, we wouldn't let it get to us, we treated it as extra time to continue with preparations, and after lockdown was lifted, we were to hold the meeting later, and raise more money than ever before for this extremely worthy cause.

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We also saw the cancellation of the much anticipated Wings & Wheels weekend, disappointing a lot of people.

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Eventually, in July, lock down was lifted, but then came social distancing and gathering restrictions.  After great discussion, it was decided that Autism Awareness could not be a successful meeting under these circumstances, and so decided to hold off with this meeting until it was more viable.

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In June we suffered the heart-breaking loss of one of our regular drivers, Jean "Mummy" Mason.  The devastating news came as a shock to us all, Jean will be sadly missed by many, and hearts go our to Barry, Ross, Jade and all the family.  Jean may be gone, but she will never be forgotten.

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In the meantime, we started off with dividing meetings into 2 sessions, one on Saturday, one on Sunday.  We also decided to do away with the Points Championships, as this could put unnecessary pressure on people to come and race, when so many were still nervous about the spreading of the virus.  We restricted drivers to 36 per meeting, allowing us to implement social distancing rules within the club.  We also installed the CCTV cameras, with live feed to a number of monitors around the pits, allowing us to keep spectators happy, but away from the track, and drivers distanced around the track.  We also installed the traffic lights system, which took a little time for some to get used to, but worked well and saved us having to keep yelling at people!

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The first weekend in August saw us change the sessions from Saturday and Sunday, to both being held on Saturday, AM & PM, allowing the Brentwood Crew some time at home at the weekends!

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August also saw our Almighty Leader, Simon "Midge" Alexander celebrate his 50th Birthday.  He even managed to host a small party for family and friends at a social club in Harold Hill, allowing a few of us to help those celebrations along!  Great night!

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Onto September, and it was my turn to celebrate, my 60th Birthday!  As planned, my 60th Birthday Bash race meeting was able to go ahead, in two sessions, (double celebrations!) and many thanks go to Sam Warman for making me a delicious birthday cake, which we ensured everyone at both sessions got a slice!

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We had also introduced the face covering ruling, and for me the highlight of this was our very own Mr Bowley, forgetting he had a face shield on, and spitting into it when he was just about to race!  (He had intended to spit on his T-shirt to wipe some blood off his arm!).  Dan Morgan laughed so much, he almost collapsed!

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We continued with the AM & PM format throughout September and October, managing to squeeze in the ramp racing, trailer racing and Halloween Havoc!  Then came lockdown number 2!  Coronavirus, you have a lot to answer for!  Now we had to cancel Brentwood's Birthday Bash!

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We were able to get back racing in December, hosting the RAW Models meeting, and an Alloy Bangers meeting, before lockdown number 3 was enforced!  So no Christmas meeting this year, sadly.  We had managed to get a collection done for Midge, as a thank you for all his hard work and efforts this year to keep us racing as much as was possible.  I know he says it's a team effort, which it is, but the team would not spring into action without his great leadership, so Midge, we all thank you so very much for everything you do for us and the club.  Although we were unable to present Midge with his presents at the Christmas meeting as planned, we managed to get a few of us at the club the night before lockdown, and Cheryl filmed live to facebook. With the money collected, Ross went shopping, buying Midge's 2 favourite tipples, 2 bottles of Brandy and 2 cases of Budweiser.  With the rest of the money he was able to get a large box of Scottish shortbread, and £30 of lotto tickets!  Thank you to everyone who put in to the collection, it's nice to know that you all appreciate Midge's efforts.

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So 2020 comes to a close, The Brentwood Crew wish you all a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.  Let's hope 2021 is a much better year, and we see a return to normal racing as soon as possible!

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Many thanks to you all for all the support you give to the club, without that, there would be no club!